Barcelona, Venezuela

Barcelona is the capital of Anzoátegui State, Venezuela and was founded in 1671. Together with Puerto La Cruz, Lecheria and Guanta, Barcelona forms one of the most important urban areas of Venezuela with a population of approximately 950,000.

History

Unlike Puerto La Cruz, which was mostly built in the 20th century, Barcelona has a mish-mash of historical and modern architecture from its several years of growth and development. The settlement of Nueva Barcelona del Cerro Santo (English: New Barcelona of the Holy Mountain), was originally established by the Spanish conquistador Joan Orpí (a native of Piera, Catalonia in Spain). It was later re-founded and populated by governor Sancho Fernández de Angulo two kilometres from the original settlement, and by a small community of Catalan colonists around 1671. Barcelona was one of the provinces under the governmental authority of the New Andalusia Province (Nueva Andalusía, or New Andalusia), and referred to commonly as New Barcelona. One of the remaining buildings of this period is the Museo de Anzoátegui, considered the oldest building in the city.

Barcelona (album)

Barcelona is an album recorded by Freddie Mercury, frontman of popular British rock band Queen, and operatic soprano Montserrat Caballé. Released in 1988. It is the second and final solo album recorded by Mercury.

After Barcelona was selected to host the 1992 Summer Olympics, Mercury was approached to write a song as a theme for the forthcoming games. The idea was to create a duet with Montserrat, as she is from the city. He had been a long standing admirer of her and she in turn grew to respect his talents very highly. They decided to work on an album together, with Mercury and Mike Moran taking the creative lead as songwriters. Mercury and Moran made and sent her tapes of the music with Mercury singing in falsetto as a guide vocal for Montserrat's parts. As they rarely had an opening in their schedule to meet, her parts were recorded at another location.

A special edition of the album was released on 3 September 2012. It features a new version of the album with the previous instrumental tracks replaced with new, live symphonic orchestration and percussion rather than synthesisers and drum machines. The new edition also has a new unique album cover.